


Silver & Gold

by zinke



Category: Castle
Genre: Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gen, Holiday Fic Exchange, Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 19:09:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/299101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinke/pseuds/zinke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I couldn’t help noticing that you finally have a chimney this year."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silver & Gold

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for **k8-rab** as part of LJ's castle100 2011 holiday drabble exchange. The prompt given to me was: _present_. I tried to keep it at drabble-length; really I did. But rather predictably, Castle decided to go a little overboard.
> 
> Thanks to both **gabolange** and **girlunravelled** for their suggestions and advice.

_And think of all the fun and joy  
That would be lost on Christmas morning  
If all the young folks didn't get to see  
That sparkling happy tree.  
\- ‘Silver & Gold’, Burl Ives_

 

It’s Christmas morning, and Kate Beckett can’t believe her eyes.

There’s a fire she doesn’t remember lighting crackling away in her apartment’s wood burning stove. A small, brightly decorated Christmas tree that she knows for a fact wasn’t there when she went to bed last night stands beside the fire, its ornaments sparkling in the early morning sunlight. And beneath the tree’s evergreen boughs sits a single small package wrapped in silvery paper and topped with a gauzy red bow.

Kate is still trying to figure out whether to pinch herself or call the police when her cell phone rings – to the unexpected tune of ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’. All of it makes sense, however, the instant she looks at the screen and finds Castle’s familiar visage grinning back at her from beneath an ill-fitting snowy white beard and Santa hat.

He’s already ho-ho-ho-ing by the time she’s put the phone to her ear. “Santa calling.”

“Castle, how did you—”

“Nooo. Santa.” She can practically hear him grinning on the other end of the line as he continues, “I couldn’t help noticing that you finally have a chimney. And seeing as you’ve been _such_ a good little girl this year, I thought I’d drop by.”

Kate should be angry with him; but the sheer magic of the moment Castle has created won’t let her. Instead she breathes in the scent of wood smoke and pine and settles herself at the foot of the tree. “Thank you, Castle. This is all very sweet of you. But,” she adds, her lips curling into a mischievous grin, “if you call me a little girl again, I’ll make you sound like one.”

“Noted. Now open your present.”

 

*fin.”


End file.
